The present invention relates to an anchoring arrangement for securing objects to support structures in general, and more particularly to a kit containing the components which are necessary for establishing such an anchoring arrangement with the aid of a drive.
There are already known various anchoring arrangements for securing objects to support structures, such as to walls, ceilings or floors. Whatever the construction of the particular anchoring arrangement may be, they have one thing in common, they are to be accommodated in pre-drilled holes in the support structure and secured there against extraction so that the objects can then be attached to such anchoring arrangements when the latter have been so secured in the anchoring holes of the support structures. Among the various ways of securing the anchoring arrangements in the anchoring holes, there is already known to embed the anchoring arrangement in a body of hardened material which has been previously introduced, in its flowable state, into the clearance existing between the anchoring arrangement and the internal surface which bounds the anchoring hole.
The body of hardened material reliably secures the anchoring arrangement in the anchoring hole even when the latter is of a cylindrical, non-corrugated shape. However, even safer retention of the anchoring arrangement in the anchoring hole by the body of hardened material will be achieved when at least the bottom region of the anchoring hole is enlarged during the drilling operation to provide an undercut region of the anchoring hole. A drilling tool which can be advantageously used for such undercutting is disclosed, for instance, in a co-pending commonly owned patent application Ser. No. 511,256 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,807 in which the drilling tool has a drill bit extending beyond the outer periphery of the shank of the drilling tool so that rocking or orbiting motion of the drilling tool in the cylindrical pre-drilled anchoring hole about a fulcrum will result in undercutting of the bottom region of the anchoring hole.
A somewhat different drilling tool capable of performing the same function is disclosed in our copending patent application Ser. No. 719,146 which also discloses different forms of a supporting arrangement for providing a bearing for the above-mentioned rocking or orbiting motion of the drilling tool. Basically, such a support arrangement includes a collar member mounted on the drilling tool for drilling rotation therewith, and an abutment member adapted to be stationarily supported on the exposed surface of the support structure around the pre-drilled cylindrical anchoring hole and retained against rotation with the collar member. These two members have respective concave and convex contact surfaces which slide over one another during the rocking or orbiting motion of the drilling tool.
It is also already known to compose the anchoring arrangement which is to be secured in a cylindrical or an undercut anchoring hole in the support structure of two parts, namely an anchoring member adapted to be received in the anchoring hole with a clearance from the surface which bounds such an anchoring hole, and a cap member which surrounds the trailing end portion of the anchoring member and thus holds and positions the anchoring member in the anchoring hole due to its sealing contact with the above-mentioned internal surface bounding the anchoring hole at the open end of the latter which is adjacent to the exposed surface of the support structure. Such anchoring members and cap members are disclosed, for instance, in our copending patent application Ser. No. 631,153, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,512 which also discloses various ways of introducing the hardenable material into the clearance around the leading end portion of the anchoring member either through the cap member or through the leading end portion of the anchoring member, which two members together constitute an anchoring element.
As disclosed in the just-mentioned application, the hardenable material may be introduced into the clearance through an opening in the leading end of the anchoring member, by means of a shielding sleeve which extends from the exterior of the support structure through the internal passage of the anchoring member toward the opening which communicates such internal passage with the clearance. The shielding sleeve prevents soiling of a region of the internal surface which bounds the internal passage of the anchoring member, which is located upstream of the region of contact of the shielding sleeve with such internal surface, so that the shielding sleeve can be removed from the internal passage upon hardening of the material, thereby freeing the internal passage for accommodation of a threaded member serving to attach the object to the anchoring arrangement. The shielding sleeve may have a closure attached thereto which is capable of preventing backflow of the hardenable material out of the clearance and through the shielding sleeve to the exterior of the support structure. As an alternative, the injecting device which supplies the hardenable material may have a nozzle, and a plug constructed as a one-way valve is accommodated in the internal passage of the anchoring member just upstream of the opening and permits flow of the hardenable material from the injecting device through the nozzle and through the plug into the clearance but prevents backflow of such hardenable material in the opposite direction.
As the hardenable material is being introduced into the clearance, it is necessary to provide for venting of the air entrapped in the clearance which is being displaced by the hardenable material, out of the clearance. This can be achieved by providing venting openings at or through the cap member.
The concept of providing small-size venting openings through the cap member is disclosed, for instance, in our copending patent application Ser. No. 725,138 filed Sept. 17, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,202 which also specifies that such openings must be of such sizes as to render possible escape of air but prevent such escape of the hardenable substance. This copending application also discloses the concept of making the cap at least partially translucent so as to be able to observe the degree of filling of the clearance with the hardenable material, such as by providing an annular groove in the cap member into which the hardenable material will be able to penetrate only when a certain pressure develops in the clearance, the bottom wall bounding such annular groove then being translucent or even transparent so as to be able to observe the penetration of the hardenable material into the annular groove.
The cylinder-and-piston injecting device which is being used for introducing the hardenable material into the clearance may be of the refillable type, in which event it is necessary to, from time to time, refill the injecting device with the hardenable material. The hardenable material may be of the type which is being supplied in form of a powder which is to be intimately mixed with water or similar fluid to obtain the flowable hardenable material. Thus, it is already known to provide a stirrer which so mixes the hardenable material in a container, the stirrer being constructed as an attachment to the drive which is also used for rotating the drilling tool, such as a power drill or the like. This greatly facilitates and improves the mixing operation. However, inasmuch as the drilling tool has to be removed from the chuck of the power drill and replaced by the stirrer when it is desired to mix a replenishment supply of the hardenable material, and subsequently to release the stirrer and replace the same by the drilling tool, the use of such a stirrer is very laborious and time-consuming.
While the above-discussed components are already individually known, they may not be readily available to the prospective user, particularly since they may be displayed at different locations when on sale. This results in a very disadvantageous situation in that the prospective user may either never come up with the idea of using such components in connection with one another, or may have to make an attempt to assemble such components prior to the use thereof.